Rhin

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Rhin grece naris nasus inde erinon caputpurgium quod per nares iniicitur, nam rino nares et hinc etiam rinoceron animal habens unicum cornu in naribus, rinokereos dicit grecus.


Translation:

Rhin is the Greek word for Latin naris {"nostril"} and nasus {"nose"}; Greek errinon {"sneeze-inducing medicine"} is in Latin caputpurgium {"head purging medicine"}, because it is applied through the nostrils. Rino is the Greek element for nares {"nostrils, nose"} and it also occurs in the animal{name} rinoceros {"rhinoceros"} because the animal has a single horn on its nose, and the Greeks call it rinokereos.


Commentary:

The classic Greek word for nose is ῥίς /rhís/; Simon uses a later form of the word ῥίν /rhín/. The genitive is ῥινός /rhinós/, and the word-stem ῥινο- /rhino-/ is used in compounds like /rhinókerōs/ ῥινόκερως, which the Romans adopted as rhinoceros. Medieval spellings of the name tend to be less etymologically oriented and more phonetic like Simon's, e.g. rinoceros, rinocerus, rinoceron, etc.

ῥινο- /rhino-/ is also part of the word έρρινον /érrhinon/ which Simon offers as the Greek equivalent of Latin caputpurgium. It is composed of ἐν /en/ "in(to) + nose", lit. {"something to apply in/through the nose", i.e. a "sternutatory, i.e. sneeze-inducing medicine"}.


See also: Caputpurgium

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